Former S.A. anchor dead at 65

The news was hard to hear: Former San Antonio anchorman Alan Hemberger was found dead at his Cape Cod, Mass. home Sunday night. He was 65.

WOAI-TV anchorman Randy Beamer reported on the 10 p.m. news Monday that family members said the cause of death was an apparent heart attack.

It’s been awhile, but many will still remember Hemberger as an evening co-anchor here in the 1980s. The handsome newscaster worked at KMOL-TV (now WOAI). After a few years, he left for a reporting job at “Entertainment Tonight.” There, he went by the name Alan Arthur and reported on the Oscars and Emmys, among other Hollywood happenings.

His love of local news brought him back to San Antonio after a couple of years. He returned to Channel 4 and anchored and reported for the NBC affiliate until 1989.

That’s when he left for Houston, where he was a TV news staple for nearly two decades. His highest profile was as 5 p.m. anchor at ABC affiliate KTRK-TV. I’d check in with him now and again, and found that he drew strong ratings there into the 1990s.

From KTKR, he went to Channel 39 in Houston, where he held various anchor posts before retiring in 2010, the Houston Chronicle reported.

Hemberger, an East Coast native, was a huge Boston Red Sox fan. The Houston Chronicle also reported that his former wife, Jane Hemberger, said he was found dead on his sofa, seated before a television set tuned to a cable sports channel.

“He cried when he heard the Red Sox would move on to the World Series,” she told the Chronicle. “I told him he didn’t cry like that when our five kids were born.”

I remember Alan as a dedicated newsman with a sweet smile, a fun sense of humor and a generally good guy. He also was a devoted family man.

According to Beamer, he left behind four sons and a daughter, as well as three grandchildren.